Empire has the exclusive premiere of the U.S. trailer for Disney's newest animated (and 3-D!) feature, Bolt. You'll have to click over there to see it, but remember to hurry back and tell us what you thought. Bolt is the story of a four-legged television star who believes his daring escapades are real. But when he finds himself lost in New York City, he has to recognize his ordinariness and find his way home. According to the magazine, early footage is reminiscent of Toy Story, which intrigues me more than the trailer actually does. Don't get me wrong, it's a cute trailer, but it has that standard Disney feel with the sarcastic sidekicks and obvious jokes. But I do love that hamster -- he sells me on it! He's adorable, and brings back happy memories of my childhood hamsters who also used their rollerballs for violent stunts.
If you remember, Bolt was once titled American Dog, and was set to be directed by Lilo and Stich's Chris Sanders, but was controversially dismissed by John Lasseter. The rumors flew pretty fast and thick as to why -- it was too quirky, it would not be successful, they wanted to make it CGI and 3-D, etc. Sanders was replaced with Chris Williams, and drastic story and design changes were made. And if you've never seen the original concept art, widely shared and praised the Internet over, you need to! While Lasseter's stewardship gives me hope, there's no denying that the original American Dog was really unique, and Bolt may have to work that much harder to prove itself. A cute hamster (and it pains me to say it) doesn't quite make up for the loss of the giant bunny, or the wistful shot of Mount Rushmore.
Bolt comes to theatres November 26th, 2008.
1. (sighs) I definitely was not looking forward to seeing this trailer attached to "Wall.E" as opposed to Pixar's next summer film, "Up." Having said that, the trailer wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and the movie looks like it might actually have some potential. Of course, using the word "potential" with any non-Pixar-related animated films should be taken lightly.
Posted at 1:39PM on Jun 27th 2008 by Brice_J